The beach was beautiful. During a fast paced walk I enjoyed seeing the families sitting in the sand, a toddler sloppily carrying a full bucket of water to the tiny castle he was building, the brilliant layers of blue-green meeting the cloudless sky…
The knowledge of the big “it” out there—the spill that keeps coming out beyond what any of us can comprehend every minute, hour and day--was a weight for everyone on the shore. Instead of carrying that heaviness with me, I said a prayer with every step in the surf. I had to feel that somehow my calling of all the Goodness that is seen and unseen would be heard.
Besides that imminent concern and small answer, this time of year I’m especially alert to the beach nesting birds. They depend on a clean beach, undisturbed dunes and the grace of God to hatch and raise their young. Every year, the number of successful least terns, black skimmer and snowy plovers diminishes. More harm that one can possibly imagine is done by the trash on the beach attracting predators, the quick footed tourists and locals who can’t be bothered to look where they step, and unknowing children who chase the energy strained adults mustering everything to feed their chicks.
I loved watching a skimmer dip in the shallow waves, following them in a line down the beach with a grace and precision hard to believe. Another one came. And another. On my walk back, I watched a young man with his girlfriend coming in the opposite direction. I misjudged him as one who couldn’t care less about a bird, but then I saw him turn. Stop. Watch the skimmer with a look of fascination. It made me smile and feel hopeful.
Approaching the entrance to the beach I used, it was impossible not to see a large area where a group had left over 30 bottles, cans, wrappers and used bottle of sunscreen. I felt sick. In the midst of the largest environmental disaster to ever face our country, here was a deliberate act of laziness and disregard for everything. Everything!
Even on Memorial Day? Our veterans sure as hell didn’t make their sacrifices so that Americans could treat our own country like a pig sty. Sick and angry, I collected as many pieces of trash as I could and went to the garbage bin. A couple settling down to sit in their chairs remarked about how angry it made them, yet when I returned with a bag from my car, they hadn’t lifted a finger.
I collected everything, putting the sandy refuse in a Whole Foods bag made from recycled bottles. I was pissed. I know from years of experience that some people will always litter. They’ll always have shameful behavior without being ashamed.
But what I wasn’t prepared for were countless groups of couples and families on the beach who would stay right where they were, watching. Just watching. It didn't occur to them to clean it up before, and seeing someone picking up the mess, it still didn't occur to them.
As they hear news of the oil spill at night, do they shake their heads with sadness, change the channel, or pray for the sportscast to come?
Do you know people who roll over on their beach blankets and look the other way. What is in their conscience? What's the difference between their inaction and the inaction of those who left the trash to begin with? I'm not sure there is a difference.
13 comments:
In my disgust with BP, it never occurred to me to think about the small business owner, basically uninvolved in the crisis....perhaps even an environmentally conscious individual, as appalled by the episode as I am.
I am sorry no one helped pick up the trash. I think the truth is that most people don't think beyond the surface, and that's disappointing. But as much as I hate to admit it, my lack of thought about the individual BP proprietors shows my own lack of thorough analysis. It is a sad, sad, situation with no simple answers.
People who litter make me FURIOUS! What the heck are they thinking???!!!
I think it's a combination of entitlement (someone ELSE will clean up after me! I AM a special snowflake after all) and willfull ignorance.
regardless... I think litterbugs should have to clean up the beach with their tongues.
I'm sure many of the spectators on the beach figured why should they get up to clean the trash when there was someone like you to do it. Unfortunately, too many people rely on the other person to do the right thing.
Good to hear your tales from the States, Gropi. Groping through the darkness towards the light once again. My reading of the collective unconscious on the subject of garbage is this: people are so subconciously ashamed of the mess, literal and figurative, whhich their habits and morals are in, that facing those shames in the light of day with honesty is too difficult to the point of unthinkable. It's immaturity on a grand scale - the fear of feeling shamed for standing out, not realising they are shamed for inaction.
I believe most people are furious about the oil spill and shake their heads in dispair, and after whining about it they go to the beach and pollute it with stuff like that... Human nature?
Come stop by to take part in the THANK YOU TOO! Contest
P.S. Is it just me, my newsfeed on blogger or have you really been MIA lately? I've been wondering where you've gone!!!
I don't think I have the heart to go to the shore this summer. This wound in the earth, to me, was inflicted by nothing more than human demand for petroleum. We need it and are willing, apparently, to sacrifice anything in order to put fuel in our cars. It fills me with remorse, as if I were the one who left behind that trash on the beach and destroyed the nests of the fragile water fowl. I hang my head in shame recognizing my part in creating the never-diminishing demand for petroleum.
And I cannot bear to watch news coverage. I change the channel. What does that say about me I wonder?
It's our job to clean up what we can, and it's also our job to reprimand the people who are soiling this place, if we catch them. Enough negative attention will get most of them to change.
We're set to volunteer for oil cleanup. They're going to start holding classes soon, I hear.
I still won't buy BP products, ever again. Sure, it hurts the gas station owner, but to buy BP products only keeps the company alive longer to do more damage.
You make such a valid point here. We wage war with our words and then that's all we do. So nothing changes.
I didn't even realize that it was BP's pump out there until this week. I don't think that the small business owners are going to be held liable for any of us who refuse to buy gas from then now. I think they will be expecting a drop in purchases right now. That being said, I don't purchase their gas anyhow because my cars get air bubbles in the lines from it.
Why do people find it so difficult to clean up after themselves? I used to think they felt priviledged and above reproach, now I don't know if it's more disregard or laziness. Litter anywhere annoys me to no end!
I'm glad you're back to writing! I knew you were frizzle-fried, but I didn't realize you were taking a break from writing. It's always the same... I find a good blogger to follow, and he/she stops. Weird. I'm glad you're back at it. And thank you for visiting my little hidey-hole.
Wonderful post Gropius. Thank you. The oil spill sickens me on such a visceral level that I can't think about it, much less post about it. We, as a nation, have seen this coming for all of our lives but are too stupid or lazy to do anything about it. It's past shameful. It's driven by the worst sin of all... greed.
Unfortunately they probably figured you had it covered. People often don't do much if someone else will, which is sad, I know. Thank you for doing that, I would've helped you. It seems if this oil spill can do one thing, it's to make us all watch the little things we can do to help the environment each day.
I heard an interesting discussion about boycotting the BP stations. Basically, the independent BP stations aren't where BP's big money is. It's from companies like Walmart, Costco, etc who buy hundreds of thousands of gallons of gas and then sell it under their own brand. So we need to contact those corporate headquarters and find out who they buy their gas from. Then those are the ones you boycott.
I feel your rage about the people who leave their garbage around like the earth was their personal dumping ground. I would have been right there with you picking it up, too.
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